Mr Gao's body was found floating in the ocean off Cronulla Beach this year.

Mr Rogerson showed little emotion as Central Local Court magistrate Les Mabbutt rejected his lawyer's claim that the Crown case against his client was "weak" and its opposition to bail was based on "pure speculation" that was "unsupported by the evidence".

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The magistrate also declined to accept Mr Rogerson's offer of a $1.5 million bail surety, and his claim that a series of medical conditions demanded that he be on liberty until his trial.

"The Crown case, while a circumstantial one, does have merit," Mr Mabbutt said.

"If convicted he will spend the remainder of his life in custody.

"He poses an unacceptable risk of failing to appear. Given the potential penalty he faces, the temptation of not appearing is there."

He said that this risk, and the risk that Mr Rogerson would commit a crime, such as attempting to interfere with the administration of justice, could not be ameliorated by any bail conditions he might impose.

This was despite the fact that Mr Rogerson had offered to report to police twice a day, to only use a mobile phone provided by police, and to submit to electronic monitoring.

While on remand, Mr Rogerson allegedly told his wife in a phone conversation that he had simply gone into the unit to provide "some old fatherly advice".

In opposing his application for bail, Crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell, QC, said that prison officers had recorded the phone conversation between Mr Rogerson and his wife.

"I kept looking at the f---ing [CCTV] camera and thinking: 'Why would you go there [to commit a crime]?" Rogerson allegedly told his wife of the moment when Mr McNamara and Mr Gao entered the storage unit,which was recorded on CCTV.

"It's the last place in the bloody world," he allegedly continued.

"He [Mr McNamara] just wanted to go somewhere quiet."

When Mr Rogerson's wife asked him why he had then joined the two men in the unit, he said: "They had been there for a while and I just wanted to see what was happening.

He and McNamara emerged briefly, before re-entering with a silver surfboard cover.

Not long after, the pair loaded what was allegedly Mr Gao's body inside the surfboard cover, into a station wagon, before driving off in separate cars.

While prosecutors allege that this is clear evidence of Mr Rogerson's involvement in a "joint criminal enterprise" with Mr McNamara to kill the 20-year-old, George Thomas, Mr Rogerson's barrister, told the hearing that this in no way proved his client was guilty of murdering, and left numerous questions unanswered.

"The police are unable to answer some very basic questions," Mr Thomas said.

"Do you know who fired the fatal shots? No we don't. Do you know if the shot was fired by Roger Rogerson or someone else? No we don't. Do you know if there was a struggle? No we don't. Do you know whether Mr Gao produced the firearm, raising a possible self-defence argument? No, we don't know anything about that.

"These are the questions that need to be asked, because the Crown is engaging in false constructions and speculation."

Mr Maxwell acknowledged that the Crown case was a circumstantial one, but said the different strands of the case needed to be looked at as "being tied together into a cable" rather than in isolation.